Diabetes Talking

Question:

Hi to all ! I am a 30 yrs old male living in Scandinavia and I have suffered almost two years from mysterious symptoms and nobody seems to be able to make a reasonable diagnosis. The symptoms are getting worse little by little, so I reckon, something should be done quite soon. I feel dizzy sometimes daily and I suffer from disturbances in my consiousness. I can handle my problems by eating little portions of food in every 2 hours, but if I eat a normal or big meal I will get a dizzyness attack in next 2 hours. The level of dizzyness is directly proportional to the amount of food I have eaten. The level of dizzyness varies quite a lot. In the worst case I have to lie in bed even 1-2 hours before I am fully recovered. While I am lying on the bed I can in principle e.g. read a book or newspaper, but usually I feel so powerless and dead that I choose not to do anything. Sometimes I feel just tired as normal people do, but then I usually also feel myself being aggressive. If I am e.g. driving my car, I suddenly start to feel that all other drivers drive like complete idiots and my driving behavior changes much more aggressive. In one case the dizzyness was so bad after a big meal that I had to lie down in office floor for 0.5 hour, because I felt that if I don’t do this, I’ll just drop to the floor. Luckily the day was between Christmas and New Year, so nobody else was able to see this incident. While I feel dizzy, I have also other symptoms simultaneously. I can’t understand exactly what other people say, and my speech is not fluent any more, it is like some letters would be missing. It is also very embarrassing, when one sees that the counterpart in the discussion understands that something is now wrong. As a possible diagnosis to all this I of course thought first the diabetes or some other disturbance in body’s metabolism. I went to the company doctor, who put me to sugar stress test (75 g glucose is given to the patient and blood sugar level tested) but the results were in normal boundaries:   0 h  4.5 mmol/l   1 h  5.8 mmol/l   2 h  6.0 mmol/l   3 h  2.6 mmol/h   4 h  4.1 mmol/h   5 h  3.8 mmol/l From these values only the 3 h 2.6 mmol/l is a bit low. But I remember myself that at that time I was feeling very dizzy, my speech was not running well, I couldn’t understand well, what other people said to me etc. One other patient thought that I was drunken, well the time was Tuesday 01.00 p.m. so that really was not a very likely diagnosis ! Anyway, the doc. just said that I am as healty as a 30 yrs old male can be and that there is nothing wrong with me. It should also be noted that neither of my parents are supposed to have diabetes, anyway as far as I know, but they are not old yet so who knows. My question is, that is it possible that I have some other body diabolism disease (inherited or not) than diabetes ? Once somebody said that I’d have a hypoglycemia, that is a tendency to have a low sugar level, but others say that the hypoglycemia is not a disease, but that it is a state of body, which is caused by some disease or mistreatment. My health in general is OK, but there were a time when I had lots of stress in my job and particularly those times my condition was worse than usual. I have exorcise once or twice a week and I have a bit overweight, I weight 83 kg, my lenght is 172 cm, weight index 27.9. If I use alcohol more than 2 – 3 times 5 cl e.g. whiskey (40%), I shall have a terrible hangover that can last 24h. It depends a bit, do I drink wine, beer or other kind of alcohol. Another thing is the coffee and caffeine. If I drink 2 x 2.5 dl cups of coffee, it affects me the rest of the day, I feel dizzy and have a strong feeling of euphoria, I fly very high. And the next night’s sleep is of course gone, I shall sleep max. 1-2 hours. Actually, I can’t understand, why some people have to take narcotics, I can get a high just by drinking two cups of coffee !! If somebody knows what is my disease, or knows, where I should contact in order to get this problem fixed, please contact me or send a reply. As I said, I have already tried the company health care and the people in local public health centre (hospital) are not intrested. If you are going to send a reply to the usenet news system, pleas send the same message also to my email address: since I do not have the chance to read news every day, and I don’t want to loose any answers to this message. I would be also grateful, if you can tell me more names of newsgroups handling diabetes and body metabolism diseases. Best Regards, Michail

Response:

This sounds like chronic Reactive Hypoglycemia to me. My step-mother has it too and the symptoms match. I feel dizzy sometimes daily and I suffer from disturbances in my consiousness. I can handle my problems by eating little portions of food in every 2 hours, but if I eat a normal or big meal I will get a dizzyness attack in next 2 hours. The level of dizzyness is directly proportional to the amount of food I have eaten.

Do you eat normal meals, with all food groups included? This could be a problem if you are a hypoglycemic, since your body is giving too much insulin to correct for ANY carbohydrates (sugars, fruits, and breads, in that order) that you eat. Reactive Hypoglycemia is best corrected by avoiding sugars totally (at least as much as possible), most fruits and starches. Eating small meals every 2 to 3 hours is necessary, but they MUST be mostly fats and proteins. I don’t know if you are doing this now, but ONLY eating often is just half of the problem, it’s also WHAT you eat. Unfortunately there is no other treatment possible for Reactive Hypoglycemia. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – The level of dizzyness varies quite a lot. In the worst case I have to lie in bed even 1-2 hours before I am fully recovered. While I am lying on the bed I can in principle e.g. read a book or newspaper, but usually I feel so powerless and dead that I choose not to do anything. Sometimes I feel just tired as normal people do, but then I usually also feel myself being aggressive. If I am e.g. driving my car, I suddenly start to feel that all other drivers drive like complete idiots and my driving behavior changes much more aggressive. In one case the dizzyness was so bad after a big meal that I had to lie down in office floor for 0.5 hour, because I felt that if I don’t do this, I’ll just drop to the floor. Luckily the day was between Christmas and New Year, so nobody else was able to see this incident. While I feel dizzy, I have also other symptoms simultaneously. I can’t understand exactly what other people say, and my speech is not fluent any more, it is like some letters would be missing. It is also very embarrassing, when one sees that the counterpart in the discussion understands that something is now wrong.

Yes, these problems are all possible with hypoglycemia because your brain is not getting enough glucose so some normal functions aren’t supported as well as normal. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – As a possible diagnosis to all this I of course thought first the diabetes or some other disturbance in body’s metabolism. I went to the company doctor, who put me to sugar stress test (75 g glucose is given to the patient and blood sugar level tested) but the results were in normal boundaries:   0 h  4.5 mmol/l   1 h  5.8 mmol/l   2 h  6.0 mmol/l   3 h  2.6 mmol/h   4 h  4.1 mmol/h   5 h  3.8 mmol/l From these values only the 3 h 2.6 mmol/l is a bit low. But I remember myself that at that time I was feeling very dizzy, my speech was not running well, I couldn’t understand well, what other people said to me etc. One other patient thought that I was drunken, well the time was Tuesday 01.00 p.m. so that really was not a very likely diagnosis !

A 2.6 is NOT a little low. Below 4.0 can be dangerous, and any doctor who didn’t respond to that by at least thinking about reactive hypoglycemia is NOT serving you well. On this basis you had at least 2, and more likely 3 low readings out of 6. The 4.1 could be that high ONLY as a result of testing variables, so I think of it as possibly being a 4.0. Unfortunately this condition is misunderstood by many doctors if they are even aware of it. It was the most popular misdiagnosis used as an excuse for too many other problems in years past, so many doctor’s think of it as being an impossible disease to get. My step-mother and step-brother both have it, and they prove the doctors wrong, as do other people I know in Internet. Anyway, the doc. just said that I am as healty as a 30 yrs old male can be and that there is nothing wrong with me.

Wrong! It should also be noted that neither of my parents are supposed to have diabetes, anyway as far as I know, but they are not old yet so who knows.

Diabetes is NOT necessarily inherited, nor is reactive hypoglycemia. My question is, that is it possible that I have some other body diabolism disease (inherited or not) than diabetes ? Once somebody said that I’d have a hypoglycemia, that is a tendency to have a low sugar level, but others say that the hypoglycemia is not a disease, but that it is a state of body, which is caused by some disease or mistreatment.

Not true. It’s a matter of the insulin control mechanism in the body malfunctioning, and it DOES happen to some people naturally. We’re talking about the body’s need to release roughly 35/100 of a mililiter of insulin per day, so fine control is absolutely necessary for proper functioning, and doesn’t need to be far off to give you this problem. If you don’t get it under control you may eventually develop diabetes as a result. I have exorcise once or twice a week and I have a bit overweight, I weight 83 kg, my lenght is 172 cm, weight index 27.9.

Your overweight may be CAUSED by reactive hypoglycemia. My step-mother was overweight when I first started helping her learn how to eat nutritious meals but lost weight after that. If I use alcohol more than 2 – 3 times 5 cl e.g. whiskey (40%), I shall have a terrible hangover that can last 24h. It depends a bit, do I drink wine, beer or other kind of alcohol.

Alcoholic drinks can be very dangerous for you. If you drink them please keep from drinking very much at a time. If somebody knows what is my disease, or knows, where I should contact in order to get this problem fixed, please contact me or send a reply. As I said, I have already tried the company health care and the people in local public health centre (hospital) are not intrested. I would be also grateful, if you can tell me more names of newsgroups handling diabetes and body metabolism diseases.

There are 2 webpages about Reactive Hypoglycemia, or the lower level Fasting Hypoglycemia. Go to: http://huizen.dds.nl/~hypo/ That’s in Holland (the Netherlands). Also: http://www.fred.net/slowup/hypo.html There are some links there to various other webpages. Good luck, hope this helps! Ted Quick Type 1 diabetic for 41 years. Hypoglycemic step-mother with 50+ years experience.

Response: